Halloween, part 1 (the boys)

Or: how to put together 5 costumes (with a surprise 6^th 2 weeks early) on a budget

I know it’s been a few years since I posted one of these (mostly due to real life craziness, not lack of things to share) 

*drumroll*

This year’s Halloween costumes for my boys 

(The girls will be part 2)!

So, the last couple of years I have really had to step up my costume game. This year, the first since 

I started working again, was even more so.

Elroy is all about cosplay level costumes. Bam-Bam can’t make up his mind (this year he decided as he was getting dressed for the costume parade Halloween morning that he was an entirely different character

than he had dressed as.

Because my children get all grouchy when they don’t eat, I have a strict under $35 per child budget for costumes (as the most basic, won’t even survive trick or treating store bought costume starts at $35). Thrift stores are my secret weapon for costumes (I love Goodwill, and Thursdays the color of the week items are $1 each). So long as the shape and material are right, it’s not impossible to adapt pieces 

to what you need without too much trouble.

Elroy:

This year Elroy and I have been watching Attack on Titan 

(a beautiful, but incredibly dark anime) and he decided he wanted to be the main character, Eren, who becomes a Scout to fight the titans who are destroying humanity.

As per usual the last few years, 

Elroy’s costume was the most expensive. 

All the clothing was from Goodwill (the cloak was a lucky find, but was not discounted and ended up being the single most expensive piece this year). The jacket was too small, so I split the side and sleeve seams and added a 2 inch wide strip of vinyl (on sale at the craft store) to each side. It’s still fairly tight across the shoulders, but I don’t want to split the back, too. We used more of the vinyl to make, the straps, waist and belt, and put him in a pair of Hunny’s tall boots. He couldn’t have any weapons, 

so we plan to make the sword box and flight canister pieces when we do his birthday pictures this year.

And here’s the final product:

 Jacket, shirt (a hoodie with the hood removed), 

and capri pants: $1 each

Cloak, with scout symbol already on back: $15

Dark Brown Vinyl for jacket, straps & belt: 

1 yard for $8, after coupon

Belt buckle: $5, Rivets, glue & boots we already had: $0

Total: $31 (just under, but still . . .)

  

Bam-Bam:

So, for my sanity in the lead up to Halloween, I have the kids decide their costumes early (so I have time to piece items and get things on sale). Like by 4^th of July, early. 

Initially, he wanted to be the 11th Doctor 

(in the purple coat and old fashioned shoes). 

Then his teacher threw a big old wrench in my plans. 

All the 5^th graders (I know!) had to do a biography presentation, the Wax Museum, which included dressing as their subject . . . on the 18^th of October.

At this point, I had already found a grey coat for him that could be dyed purple as well as a black vest for underneath. 

Bam-Bam gets assigned Abe Lincoln. 

Ok, I can work with that.

I found plenty of portraits of him in not-black coats that are conveniently similar in style to the one I already got for him. And the black vest is tall enough to look like a waistcoat. I just need to find a passable cravat (I ended up finding a tie and tying it loosely at the fat end and tucking it in) and some dress shoes for him. But I was having a hard time finding any sort of old man boots for his actual costume . . . 

And then he changed his mind! 

He decided (after a birthday that did not include his own sonic screwdriver) that he would prefer to be a gunslinger from the old west instead (he found the plastic bullet bandoleer I had picked up for steampunk uses). 

Fine. Halloween morning, getting ready for school, Bam-Bam decides that he isn’t a gunslinger at all. 

He’s Van Helsing. At this point, I’m like . . . whatever, dude. 

Grey coat, vest, hat, belt, cowboy gun set and shoes: $1 each

Black pants: $8  Plastic bullet bandoleer of his own: $5

Jeans, shirt, brown western coat 

and bandanna we already had: $0)

Total: $19, for both costumes

Not bad, right?

Next up: the girls costumes!